How Ghurka Boosted Black Friday Revenue by 114%

Challenge

Ghurka, a distinguished luxury leather goods brand, faced the challenge of boosting brand loyalty and driving sales during the competitive Black Friday season. For a high end brand that rarely discounts, Ghurka collaborated with Novel to take a different approach to the holiday season by gifting store credit which lived on their wallet pass rather than traditional holiday discount codes. To reward loyal customers, they gave anywhere from $25 to $200 to each of their customers based on how much they spent in the last year - setting an expiration date of those funds to the New Year. This personalized gift lived as cash directly in their customers pocket, guiding them to spend it before it expired. 

We sat down with Max Milstein, Director of Retention at Ghurka, to learn how they leveraged custom wallet passes to level up their brand loyalty.

Strategy: Offering Store Credit to Kickstart Loyalty

Ghurka’s bags typically are high cost, one time purchases. The team focused their loyalty efforts on being grateful and personalized by having an easy entry point for their customers to install the pass with a $25-$200 credit to use towards their next purchase. To launch, Ghurka sent emails to all their customers personalizing the messaging and allowing customers to install a pass that had their name on it. 

Unlocking Urgency: Expiring Store Credit meets a Native Communication Channel 

Once passes were in their customer’s hands, Ghurka utilized Novel’s push notifications to build urgency, communicate deals, and guide customers to redeem their gift. Ghurka utilized Novel’s dynamic passes to convert the Black Friday passes into the Ghurka loyalty card that customers could use for referrals and earn cash back through 2024.

Implementation

Loyalty Tiers: Customers were categorized into different loyalty tiers based on their accumulated spending, with each tier associated with a specific amount of cash back. 

Credit Accumulation: Digital wallet passes tracked customer spending and automatically credited their accounts, fostering transparency and ease of use.

Results

Increased AOV: The credit-based rewards system proved to be a powerful incentive, leading to an uptick in customer spending and overall AOV of $349.84, as individuals aimed to reach higher loyalty tiers.

Brand Loyalty Boost: Customers responded positively to the rewards program, expressing a heightened sense of loyalty and appreciation for the exclusive benefits offered, priming customers for a full fledged rewards program launching in early 2024.

Successful Black Friday Launch: The strategic timing of the program launch contributed to a successful Black Friday, with increased customer participation and higher AOV. 

New Direct Channel: Ghurka's loyalty program successfully opened a direct and personalized channel of communication with customers through wallet passes with push notification even past the holiday launch. 

Data Insights: The digital nature of the rewards program provided Ghurka with valuable data insights into customer behavior, preferences, and spending patterns, which serve as a foundation for future strategic planning.

Conclusion

The collaboration between Ghurka and Novel implemented a loyalty program that successfully addressed the challenges of rewarding brand loyalty, earning credit based on spending, and navigating a Black Friday launch. This case study highlights the effectiveness of leveraging dynamic wallet passes to enhance customer engagement, loyalty, and sales during black friday.